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June72014 A1 June 2014 | Volume | Issue• 10
neighborly news & entertainment
A tale of triumph
Technically speaking OMMS robotics students hope their current success leads to a future for the program By JEFF THOMPSON
A mother will share her daughter’s story of overcoming trials during a event this month in Mt Laurel. Read more about 280 area events inside.
Events page B3
Gone fishing
Find our complete guide to what’s biting around the 280 corridor in this issue.
Feature page A16
INSIDE Sponsors ...... A4 280 News ..... A6 Business ...... A10 Food ............. A13
On a computer across the room, Omar Zuaiter is entering code. As he hammers commands into the computer, the bulky skeleton of what looks like a tiny piece of construction equipment starts to heave. Twenty feet away, it rolls across a gray mat and swings its top arm down at a red ball. Two rotors on the front of the arm start to spin and, well, the beastly robot wildly misses it’s objective. “I’m still working it out,” Omar said. Omar is an eighth-grade member of Team Blunderbuss (named for a pirate pistol), one faction of the robotics program at Oak Mountain Middle School. He and other members of the team spend most of their afternoons in the technology lab at the school, but they spend most of their days thinking about what goes on in there. They scratch robot designs in notebooks they
carry around everywhere. Not only are he and his teammates learning engineering, in about a year’s time they’ve become engineers — good ones. “I’m fourth place in the nation for programming,” Omar said, referring to the 2013 VEX Robotics National Competition. This month, Omar, Jadon Bailey, Garrett Tautkus and Ryan Cruce — Team Blunderbuss — are returning to nationals after taking first place in the state competition held in April. They’re confident in their creation, and none of them show the slightest signs of being nervous. Maybe it’s because of their track record. In last year’s VEX, OMMS finished in the top 10 in the nation. But how they got there is even more inspiring. While other programs have been building for years, OMMS hasn’t. Two summers ago, there wasn’t much to see in the wood
See ROBOTICS | page A26
Community .. B1 School House ... B14 Sports ............... B16 Calendar .......... B20
Oak Mountain Middle School robotics sponsor James Salvant stands with members of the team that will participate in the national competition this month. From left are Garrett Tautkus, Jadon Bailey and Omar Zuaiter. Photo by Jeff Thompson.
Grandview in progress Changes visible one year after Trinity on 280 cleared to construct
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By JEFF THOMPSON
Drivers on U.S. 280 can see signs of construction at Grandview Medical Center. Photo by Jessa Pease.
It’s been one year since the lights went green for Trinity on 280 — now officially Grandview Medical Center — and since then the project has kept its foot on the gas. Trinity Medical CEO Keith Granger said Grandview
Medical is on track to open during the first quarter of 2016. Construction on the campus has progressed rapidly, focusing largely on the parking deck and physicians’ building slated to accompany the main facility. Granger said contractors
See TRINITY | page A27